Offer to PDP limited to outside support, says NC

Srinagar: As PDP showed disinclination to take its support, National Conference today said its offer was limited to outside support for government formation in Jammu and Kashmir and attacked PDP, saying it was "ready to

Srinagar: As PDP showed disinclination to take its support, National Conference today said its offer was limited to outside support for government formation in Jammu and Kashmir and attacked PDP, saying it was "ready to make every possible compromise and U-turn to come to power"

NC general secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar said his party was not interested in being a part of government and that "unlike" PDP, his party is "guided by principles and a political ideology that is rooted in the aspirations and sentiments of the people."

In a statement here, he said, "It should be amply clear that the NC's offer to PDP was an offer of outside support for PDP to form the government in J&K and that National Conference was not interested in being a part of such a government in the state."

His statement came as PDP, which has emerged as the single largest party in the Assembly polls with 28 seats, indicated that it may not be inclined to accept NC's offer of support for forming a government. NC has got 15 seats.

"The people have voted against the National Conference in the elections and with just 15 seats, they (NC) cannot decide on the government formation," PDP Chief spokesperson Naeem Akhtar told PTI here earlier.

Akhtar was commenting on the letter sent by NC's Working President Omar Abdullah to Governor N N Vohra yesterday to inform him about his party's support to PDP and asking him not to take any decision with regard to the government formation and Assembly's "viability" without consulting his party.

Targeting PDP, Sagar said, "We have put our ideology over the lure of power, something that quite understandably seems inconceivable for a party like the PDP which is ready to make every possible compromise and U-turn to come to power in the State.

"PDP wants to come to power at any cost, even if that means contradicting everything PDP leaders said during the campaign for the Assembly Elections."

He said if NC were interested in being part of a government in J and K, it could have aligned with the BJP which "was an option readily available to NC after the election results came out."

"Unlike PDP, National Conference has put its ideology and the State's Special Status above the petty trappings of power by not aligning with BJP," Sagar said.

He rubbished PDP's "deluded claim" that NC had been punished or sidelined by the people.

"A party that only got 60,000 more votes than us collectively in the state can hardly make that claim with a straight face. PDP tried its best to accentuate a propaganda of an alleged 'PDP wave', which clearly turned out to be a farce as the results demonstrated.

"The last we checked, neither had Mufti Mohammad Sayeed rendered a public apology for his crimes against Kashmiris during his tenure as the (Union) Home Minister and nor have the people of the state forgiven him for lording over countless massacres and being the architect of repression in the state.

"So, the PDP Chief Spokesperson should come out of his delusions and the party should stop taking the people of Kashmir for granted", Sagar added.

He said the PDP "clearly owes a debt to the BJP since it was the BJP that funded and supported the creation of the PDP with a view of dividing the people of Kashmir and fragmenting their representative voice. Similarly, the BJP owns promoter's equity in the PDP for having funded the creation of PDP".

The NC had hoped that PDP would forge a coming together of the two regional parties in the larger interest of the state but "we recognize their compulsions due to the debt they owe to the BJP," said Sagar, MLA from Khanyar.

"It would now be better for the PDP to be honest with the people rather than trying to cloak their deceit behind some smokescreen of a moral high ground," he added.